A telecommunications system generally stores and accesses information in the course of providing telecommunication services to subscribers. This information relating to a subscriber is referred to herein as an entry or as a subscription. Typically, a telecommunications system stores the entry or subscription relating to the subscriber in connection with a service or services that are provided through an advanced intelligent network (AIN). The entry or subscription is generally stored in storage like the memory of an AIN element such as an intelligent peripheral (IP) or a service circuit node (SCN), which is used to provide the service. In some intelligent peripherals, a designated area of storage is reserved for such entries or subscriptions, and is referred to herein as reserved storage.
With the popularity of AIN services, an intelligent peripheral may come to store a great number of entries or subscriptions. In fact, the storage or the reserved storage for such entries or subscriptions may fill to high levels or even to capacity with entries or subscriptions. In some cases, when the storage or reserved storage fills to high levels, it becomes difficult to re-initialize or re-construct the storage or reserved storage. The high levels in storage or reserved storage may lead to crashes during the re-initialization or re-construction procedures. Out-of-the-ordinary methods for re-initializing or re-constructing the storage or reserved storage must be undertaken. Thus, high levels of entries or subscriptions in storage or reserved storage are generally avoided.
When its storage or reserved storage is full of entries or subscriptions, the intelligent peripheral also may suffer the crashes described above. Once the storage or reserved storage reaches a high level or is filled to capacity, the intelligent peripheral generally cannot be used to serve additional subscribers. In sum, the storage capacity or reserved storage capacity of the intelligent peripheral may act as a limitation on the number of subscribers that may be served by the intelligent peripheral.
Efforts have been made to find a way to add subscribers to a service or services when the storage capacity or reserved storage capacity of the intelligent peripheral providing the service(s) rises to high levels or has been filled. Consideration has been given to the idea of adding one or more intelligent peripherals or other network elements for use in providing the service(s) to the additional subscribers. Generally, this idea has been discarded because the addition of another intelligent peripheral or other network element involves costs as yet unjustified by the profits to be gained from the additional subscribers. These costs can run into the millions of dollars.
Given the desire to add subscribers but to avoid adding an intelligent peripheral or other network element, efforts have been made to find a way to maximize the number of entries or subscriptions that may be stored in an intelligent peripheral. Consideration has been given to the idea of reconfiguring the use of the overall storage and memory facilities of the AIN. For example, load balancing could be implemented so as to move entries or subscriptions from a heavily loaded intelligent peripheral to a less loaded intelligent peripheral or other network element. As with the idea of adding an intelligent peripheral, this idea of load balancing has problems. Such load balancing requires a great deal of network operations carried out on a continuing basis. In other words, continual oversight of the loads of the various network elements and execution of operations is required to keep the loads balanced. The large scale of the operations and their continuing nature make this an expensive approach. In addition, load balancing would serve only as a stop-gap measure. As the number of subscribers increased, there would be fewer less loaded intelligent peripherals to which the heavier loaded intelligent peripherals could transfer some of their loads. Eventually, all of the intelligent peripherals would top out.
Thus, there exists a need for a method or system that maximizes the number of entries or subscriptions that may be stored in an intelligent peripheral. In particular, there exists a need for such a method or system that accomplishes such maximization without the addition of an AIN element such as an intelligent peripheral to the telecommunications system. Further, there exists a need for such a method or system that accomplishes such maximization without the necessity of large scale network operations carried out on a continual basis. In addition, there exists a need for such a method or system that accomplishes such maximization for the relatively long term rather than as a stop gap measure. Finally, there exists a need for such a method or system that accomplishes such maximization efficiently and economically so as to best serve the subscribers and the service provider of the telecommunications system.